The Week in Editorial Cartoons – Exorcism, InsaniTea, and Helping Jerry Brown

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Crossposted at Daily Kos and Docudharma

J.D. Crowe, Mobile Register

Bewitched

Christine O’Donnell has wiggled her nose and put a hex on the GOP establishment.  The novice Tea party candidate turned lots of heads, Linda Blair-like…But Karl Rove, the Warlock of W, has been taken aback by O’Donnell’s victory.  Even he thinks this girl is bat$#!+ crazy and that the Republicans have been given a Tea Party roofie.

Personally, I think she’s the best thing to happen to political satirists since her mentor, Sarah Palin. Republicans, on the other hand, are fingering the Yellow Pages looking for an exorcist. And maybe an antidote.

PLEASE READ THIS: There are another 30 or so editorial cartoons and videos posted in the comments section of this diary over at Daily Kos.  Check them out.

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THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS

This weekly diary takes a look at the past week’s important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.

When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?

2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?

3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?

The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist’s message.

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Robert Ariail, Comics.com (formerly of The State, SC) Christine O’Donnell Dabbles in More Witchcraft by Chris Britt, see reader comments in State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Pat Oliphant, Yahoo Comics/Universal Press Syndicate and Stuart Carlson, Slate/Universal Press Syndicate (click link to enlarge cartoon) Bruce Beattie, Comics.com (Daytona Beach News-Journal) Don Wright, Comics (Tribune Media Services) Jeff Danziger, Yahoo Comics/New York Times Syndicate and Tom Toles, Slate/Washington Post (click link to enlarge cartoon) Signe Wilkinson, Comics.com (Philadelphia Daily News) Nate Beeler, Washington Examiner, Buy this cartoon I’m Not a Witch by John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Buy this cartoon

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SPECIAL FUNDRAISING APPEAL – Help Jerry Brown and Enter to Win a Quilt by Sara R

California – Meg and Latinos by Steve Greenberg, Freelance Cartoonist (Los Angeles, CA), Buy this cartoon

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Jerry Brown for California Governor – Why F. Scott Fitzgerald Was Wrong

As the author of The Great Gatsby and one whose writings defined an earlier American generation, F. Scott Fitzgerald is widely considered to be one of the finest writers of the 20th century.  Even with his immense talents, his capabilities as a predictor of future events were limited for he could not have foreseen what is taking place in early 21st century politics in the nation’s largest state, California.  Fitzgerald was wrong in one instance about the possibility of Americans reinventing and reinvigorating themselves for service to their country: he never met the once — and with your help — future Governor of California, Jerry Brown

With depressing finality, Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald declared: “There are no second acts in American lives.”  Scott may have been right in his time.  But no more.  Now a noteworthy and increasing number of Americans are beginning second acts with verve and purpose.

A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Yale Law School, Jerry Brown has been an exemplary public servant throughout his life.  Some of his accomplishments include

During Governor Brown’s tenure, California significantly reduced taxes and built up the largest state surplus ever.  His eight years in office are generally considered among the most innovative in California history.  He established the first agricultural labor relations law in the country, enacted collective bargaining for teachers and other public employees, started the California Conservation Corp (CCC), signed into permanent law the California Coastal Protection Act, earned federal protection of Northern California wild and scenic rivers, brought about the country’s first building and appliance energy efficiency standards and made California the leader in solar and alternative energy.

Brown appointed more women, Asians, Latinos and African-Americans to high government positions than any other chief executive.

As Sara R mentioned in a recent diary — Quilt Fundraiser for Jerry Brown — she is offering you a chance to win a beautiful quilt by making a contribution to Jerry Brown’s campaign for CA Governor. This quilt drawing will work as described below

Every day in October brings an opportunity to enter a drawing to benefit Jerry Brown’s campaign for Governor of California. Every donation of $10 or more to the fundraiser’s Act Blue page will count for a chance – one chance per person per day. You don’t need to spend money to enter, however.  If you are not donating, you can enter and have an equal chance of winning by writing an essay of 50 words or less on “Why I want Jerry Brown to be California’s next Governor”. Send your essay with a subject line, “Jerry Brown Essay”, to communityquilts (at) yahoo (dot) com.  If we find your essay topical, it will count for a chance. As with donations, one essay per person per day will count as a chance.  Only one form of entry is allowed for a person on a given day.

(“All Buttoned Up” – photo by Bill Bachhuber)

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Quilt stats:  It is 59″ square, made of cotton fabric with a cotton batting.  My sister and I pieced it.  I hand quilted it.  The blocks feature 1930s reproduction fabric (feedsack prints) on one side, and bright, jewel toned contemporary fabrics on the other.  The quilt is sleeved for hanging and would look great on your wall!

Brown’s opponent, Meg Whitman, could as easily have been a member of the Roaring Twenties society that Fitzgerald wrote about in his novels. It was an era of conspicuous consumption during which new technologies such as automobiles, television, and radio became more popular with and affordable for many Americans.  While one cannot fault Whitman for being enamored with her wealth, she hasn’t used it to benefit philanthropic and charitable causes in a particularly generous manner. This attitude resulted in her declining an offer by Warren Buffet to benefit the Giving Pledge organization, whose purpose it is to persuade billionaires to contribute at 50% or more of their wealth to charity.  

(Steve Breen, Comics.com (San Diego Union-Tribune))

As evidenced by her illegal nanny problems, editorial cartoonists have had a field day mocking Whitman’s indifference towards minorities and the hypocrisy involved in her dealings with her own employees.  A recent radio ad by SEIU included the following

Whitman attacks undocumented workers to win votes, but she hired an undocumented woman to clean, cook and take care of her children for nine years.  When the situation no longer suited her, Whitman fired and abandoned her.

Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee, Buy this cartoon

Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee, Buy this cartoon

Matt Wuerker, Politico and Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News

(click link to enlarge cartoons.  Wuerker’s cartoon is in his September Archives)

Steve Breen, Comics.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee, Buy this cartoon

As woefully unqualified Jerry Brown’s opponent is to head the largest state in the union, there is another good reason to support Brown’s candidacy.  The governor’s office is the highest political office in California and there is some evidence that if Brown wins convincingly that it will help other Democratic candidates in down ballot races such as Senator Barbara Boxer’s re-election campaign and dozens of Democratic candidates for congressional, state, and local races.

Please consider making a donation to Jerry Brown’s Campaign by entering this drawing and an opportunity to win this beautiful quilt.  Thank you.

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INTRODUCTION

The Recipe by Clay Bennett, Comics.com, see the very large number of reader comments in the Chattanooga Times Free Press, cartoon submitted by Sandy on Signal

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If you have been following cable television talk shows in recent weeks, you’ve probably noticed that these shows have been dominated by Teabagger antics.  Every day brings some stunning new revelation which would sink a conventional politician in a normal election year.  As evidenced by the array of editorial cartoons in this diary, this is anything but a normal election cycle.  To some degree, are we witnessing an implosion of such insurgent Republican political candidates?  Are they going to prevent the GOP from having any chance of regaining control of Congress?  Whatever the outcome, one thing is clear: the Teabaggers are providing enough fodder to keep dozens of editorial cartoonists gainfully employed.

Conventional politics seemed to have been stripped of any rules when so many of these wingnuts were successful in becoming Republican nominees.  But, have all rules of electoral politics been swept aside in this year of the so-called angry voter?  Unlikely.  The contradictory beliefs held by many of these candidates may be beginning to haunt them and give voters (particularly independent voters) pause in pulling the lever for such hypocrites in next month’s elections.

As Matt Taibbi recently noted in his excellent article in Rolling Stone magazine for which he visited Kentucky to gauge the political temperature

Vast forests have already been sacrificed to the public debate about the Tea Party: what it is, what it means, where it’s going.  But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I’ve concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They’re full of shit.  All of them.  At the voter level, the Tea Party is a movement that purports to be furious about government spending – only the reality is that the vast majority of its members are former Bush supporters who yawned through two terms of record deficits and spent the past two electoral cycles frothing not about spending but about John Kerry’s medals and Barack Obama’s Sixties associations.  The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending – with the exception of the money spent on them.  In fact, their lack of embarrassment when it comes to collecting government largesse is key to understanding what this movement is all about – and nowhere do we see that dynamic as clearly as here in Kentucky, where Rand Paul is barreling toward the Senate with the aid of conservative icons like Palin.

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Tea Party Red Meat by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

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The Republican platform — if one can call it that — was universally panned by the editorial cartoonists as nothing but recycled political nonsense, full of hypocritical promises based on unworkable policies which were a disaster for the country during the Bush Years.

Pledge to America by Steve Greenberg, Freelance Cartoonist (Los Angeles, CA), Buy this cartoon

Fired Up Republicans by RJ Matson, Roll Call, Buy this cartoon

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The recent suicide by Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, after two other students livestreamed his sexual encounter with another man, as well as attempts by many GOP legislators to prevent the military from phasing out its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of prohibiting gays from openly serving in the military, resulted in some poignant cartoons and justified condemnation of the Republican Party.

Mike Thompson, Comics.com (Detroit Free Press)

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Altie cartoonist Matt Bors recently spent a month in war-torn Afghanistan with two other cartoonists. The trip was quite an education for Bors and resulted in over a dozen cartoons from the ground-up in that country, some of which I will post in the comments section.

Matt Bors, Comics.com (Idiot Box)

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The successful 10.2.10 March of Washington resulted in several excellent diaries, many of them with superb photographs.  The march certainly energized tens of thousands of activists and achieved its goal of bringing attention to much-needed jobs and support for policies championed by the Obama Administration.

Herbal Tea Party by Andy Singer, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

There are about 110 editorial cartoons in this diary.  I will probably post another 20-30 or so in the comments section.  Enjoy this week’s offering and feel free to offer comments, critique, and suggestions.  Thanks.

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1. Cartoons of the Week

The Devil and Miss O’Donnell by Taylor Jones, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon :: :: THE CHRISTINE O’DONNELL CAMPAIGN THEME SONG — Now on YouTube Witchy Woman by The Eagles Raven hair and ruby lips sparks fly from her finger tips Echoed voices in the night she’s a restless spirit on an endless flight wooo hooo witchy woman, see how high she flies woo hoo witchy woman she got the moon in her eye She held me spellbound in the night dancing shadows and firelight crazy laughter in another room and she drove herself to madness with a silver spoon (Chip Bok, Comics.com/BokBluster.com) woo hoo witchy woman see how high she flies woo hoo witchy woman she got the moon in her eye Well I know you want a lover, let me tell your brother, she’s been sleeping in the Devil’s bed. And there’s some rumors going round someone’s underground she can rock you in the nighttime ’til your skin turns red woo hoo witchy woman see how high she flies woo hoo witchy woman she got the moon in her eye (Christine O’Donnell and Witchcraft by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon) :: :: With a nudge from Master Exorcist Karl Rove, the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee selected a slightly more bewitching campaign theme for Christine O’Donnell.  See for yourself on YouTube.  Saturday Night Live, of course, had its own version of the “I’m Not a Witch, I’m You” campaign ad.

Chris Britt, Comics.com, see reader comments in the State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL)

Chip Bok, Comics.com (Creators.com)

GOP Pledge to America by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

Mark Streeter, Savannah Morning News, Buy this cartoon

John Sherffius, Comics.com (Boulder Daily Camera)

Gays Can Change by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Dead Horse Economy by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Stand Back by David Fitzsimmons, Arizona Star, Buy this cartoon

Anonymous Ads by Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Buy this cartoon

Mark Streeter, Savannah Morning News, Buy this cartoon

Dana Summers, Comics.com (Orlando Sentinel)

Don Wright, Comics.com (Tribune Media Services)

Rahm Emanuel Leaves Washington by Nate Beeler, Washington Examiner, Buy this cartoon

Dan Wasserman, Comics.com (Boston Globe)

Elizabeth Warren by Taylor Jones, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

John Lennon’s 70th Birthday by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

John Lennon Tribute by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

Don Wright, Comics.com (Tribune Media Services)

John Boehner by Taylor Jones, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

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2. The New ‘Bewitched’ – Starring Christine O’Donnell

Chan Lowe, Comics.com, see reader comments in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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Lowe ponders the possibility of Teabaggers actually winning a few political races.  The outcome can be anything but cheerful, as he explains below

Christine O’Donnell’s Witchcraft Denial

The ire directed at current officeholders is really more of a resentment that there seems to be an entitled class of rulers, of beltway-savvy elites who don’t connect with the fears and aspirations  of your average Wal-Mart shopper.  The anger at government is about the distance that has grown between it and the people from whom it used to derive its legitimacy, before it fell into the clutches of special interests and individual self-interest…

Average Americans — upon hearing that someone dabbled in witchcraft, doesn’t believe in evolution, or thinks that government shouldn’t be telling a private business owner that he required to allow minorities into his store — may respond by saying, “Yeah, by golly! I can identify with that.”

Best to ride it out.  Let the nation have its convulsion at the polls, then sit back and enjoy the show.  You think these candidates look clumsy on the stump?  Wait until they galumph into the halls of congress, and are forced to confront the intricate, exhausting, inglorious and unlovely process of actually trying to run a government.

Who knows? They might even take a cue from one of their greatest avatars, throw up their hands and quit in the middle of their terms.

Tea Party Express by David Fitzsimmons, Arizona Star, Buy this cartoon

The Proponents by Clay Bennett, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Chattanooga Times Free Press

Steve Sack, Comics.com (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

Chan Lowe, Comics.com (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

I’m thinking, for example, of Rand Paul, the Tea Party-backed candidate for U.S. Senator from Kentucky.  While his off-the-cuff comments about how a restaurant ought to be free to refuse service to blacks at its lunch counter might appeal to some of the more troglodytic Republican Primary voters, it’s going to be a tough sell in the general election in November, when more reasonable citizens of all parties might wish to send him back to the planet Xykron where he came from.

— Lowe thinks that an endorsement from ignorant Teabaggers might be the kiss of death for some candidates

Newt Gingrich by Clay Jones, Freelance-Star, (Fredericksburg, VA), Buy this cartoon

Deliberative Senate by Mike Keefe, Denver Post, Buy this cartoon

Joel Pett, McLatchy Cartoons/Lexington Herald-Leader

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

Dan Wasserman, Comics.com (Boston Globe)

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3. The Republican Pledge: Back to the Future

A Pledge To America by Bob Englehart, see reader comments in the Hartford Courant, Buy this cartoon

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Englehart examines the Republican Pledge to America and finds it full of holes and platitudes.  Do these people think they can fool the country again?

OK, I wanted to do this right. Since I knew that the very serious conservative Republicans and tea party commentators who spend their days visiting this blog would demand it; I set about reading the entire A Pledge To America, all 48 pages…

Whoa, now they’re talking about an “overreaching judiciary.”  Are they talking about how the Supreme Court has given corporations the same power as individuals when it comes to making political campaign donations?  If so, you go for it, GOP!

Uh oh.  “An arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites makes decisions, issues mandates, and enacts laws without accepting or requesting the input of the many.”  I knew it wouldn’t take long to run into the hypocrisy that defines contemporary Republicans and hot shot tea baggers.  They never raised so much as a peep when President George W. Bush was running rampant all over our rights, running up more debt than any president in history and alienating most of the free world with his, what’s the word?  Yes, his arrogance.

Page 3. “Rising joblessness, crushing debt, and a polarizing political environment…” Now they’re describing the last years of the W administration.  Jesus, these people have no long term memory.  Too many prescription drugs I suppose.  It reads like the trouble started January 20, 2009.  I clearly remember it started before then.  They’ve even thrown in the word “robust” that Don Rumsfeld made popular.  Makes them sound intelligent.  I’ll bet there’s an “if you will” and an “as it were” in there somewhere.

Deficit Monster by Mike Keefe, Denver Post, Buy this cartoon

Republican Pledge Proportions by RJ Matson, Roll Call, Buy this cartoon

Gary Markstein, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Buy this cartoon

John Sherffius, Comics.com (Boulder Daily Camera)

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4. Climate Change and Other Energy Issues

Political Climate Science by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Climate Change Conference in China by Olle Johansson (Sweden), Buy this cartoon

Osama Goes Green by Nate Beeler, Washington Examiner, Buy this cartoon

Marshall Ramsey, Comics.com (Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS)

Vic Harville, Stephens Media Group (Little Rock, AR), Buy this cartoon

Where Did The Oil Go? by John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Rob Rogers, Comics.com (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Mark Streeter, Savannah Morning News, Buy this cartoon

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5. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and Other GLBT Issues

Rob Rogers, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Don’t Ask

Our brave men and women in the military deserve better than to be treated like second-class citizens.  The military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is discriminatory, bigoted and, frankly, unconstitutional.  How can we ask these men and women to risk their lives to protect our basic freedoms … and then deny them the same basic freedoms?

— Rogers takes the GOP to task for blocking the elimination of the military’s antiquated and obsolete policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

Drew Sheneman, Comics.com (Newark Star-Ledger)

Lee Judge, Kansas City Star

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

Signe Wilkinson, Comics.com (Philadelphia Daily News)

Jim Morin, McLatchy Cartoons/Miami Herald

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee, Buy this cartoon

Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

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6. Election 2010: Overwhelmed by Corporate and Foreign Spending

Jack Ohman, Comics.com (Portland Oregonian)

Tim Eagan, Deep Cover, Buy this cartoon

Karl Rove and Outside Money by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

Mudgates by Steve Greenberg, Freelance Cartoonist (Los Angeles, CA), Buy this cartoon

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7. The Economy: Slip, Sliding Away

Jack Ohman, Comics.com (Portland Oregonian)

Mike Thompson, Comics.com (>Detroit Free Press)

Jack Ohman, Comics.com (Portland Oregonian)

Jeff Stahler, Comics.com (Columbus Dispatch)

Marshall Ramsey, Comics.com (Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS)

Privatize Social Security? by Bruce Plante,  see the large number of reader comments in Tulsa World, Buy this cartoon

Steve Breen, Comics.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Bruce Beattie, Comics.com (Daytona Beach News-Journal)

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8. Exit Iraq, Enter Afghanistan

Matt Bors, Comics.com (Idiot Box)

Bors wrote this post upon his return from Afghanistan

Unfiltered Sketches of Life in Afghanistan

In August, I embarked on my first trip outside the United States, trading the calm of Portland for the chaos of Afghanistan, as election violence and deployed NATO troops reached their zenith.  Along with Ted Rall and Steven Cloud, two fellow cartoonists, we traveled unembedded and without the support of any media organization (or security) to get an up-close look at Afghan life nine years after the U.S. invasion.  I brought a lot of sketchbooks.

I’d been wanting to escape my drawing table – escape my comfort – and reduce the number of filters to zero between me and the country I’d been reading so much about.  So I went.  The trip was uncomfortable, disturbing, dirty, wonderful.  The people were eager to talk and laugh and host.  On the surface, smiles; underneath, life on a knife’s edge.  They gracefully endure living conditions that would break most of us.  I managed to learn a lot about Afghanistan and a few things about myself, but after a month you only realize how much more there is to see.

Matt Bors, Comics.com (Idiot Box)

Matt Bors, Comics.com (Idiot Box)

Matt Bors, Comics.com (Idiot Box)

Matt Bors, Comics.com (Idiot Box)

Matt Bors, Comics.com (Idiot Box)

Matt Bors, Comics.com (Idiot Box)

Chan Lowe, Comics.com (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

Beacon Of Liberty by RJ Matson, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Buy this cartoon

Chan Lowe, Comics.com (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

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9. RIP Jefferson Thomas (1942-2010), George Blanda (1927-2010), and Tony Curtis (1925-2010)

Vic Harville, Stephens Media Group (Little Rock, AR), Buy this cartoon

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Three men passed away recently.  Each left his mark on our world and will be missed.  Jefferson Thomas was a pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement and a member of the Little Rock Nine who fought for school desegregation in the 1950’s.  George Blanda played professional football for 26 years (still a record) for several teams in the National Football League.  Actor Tony Curtis was a popular Hollywood star in the 1950’s and 1960’s with prominent roles in many movies including Sweet Smell of Success, The Defiant Ones, and Some Like it Hot.

Steve Kelley, Comics.com (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

Mark Streeter, Savannah Morning News, Buy this cartoon

George Blanda, RIP by Randy Bish, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Buy this cartoon

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10. Final Thoughts

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Finally, Beatle John Lennon would have turned 70 years old this past weekend had he not been murdered in 1980.  The Washington Post paid its tribute to Lennon through an excellent photo gallery of slides covering Lennon’s life and accomplishments.

LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY – The Legacy of John Lennon

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A Note About the Diary Poll

Lloyd Dangle, Troubletown, Buy this cartoon

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Teabaggers were successful in a number of Republican primaries in defeating candidates backed by the GOP establishment.  Since the primary season ended last month, many of them have been embroiled in making scandalous statements and missteps that one doesn’t see very often from more polished, conventional politicians.  

How many of these wingnuts will actually succeed and win in the General Election next month?  You can look at all Teabagger nominees who are fighting for their political lives in this Tea Party Candidates Interactive Map.  Who do you think has the best chance of winning and which candidate would you most like to see defeated by his or her Democratic opponent?

Don’t forget to take the diary poll.

Chan Lowe, Comics.com, see reader comments in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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